This is such a typical fox news moment. They bring this clown on (probably because he's such a loyal republican) as the only "voice" and "moderate" out there and as usual they call him an "Expert". This is the way foxnews pushes their ultra-rightwing agenda and can get away with it because there are so many people willing to give them a pass. This is why we need the fairness doctrine back to give BOTH sides a say in the deabte not what some biased network thinks. This goes the same way with talk radio it amazes me that Rush, Boortz and the rest of the conservative cadre can keep spreading ovcious false "truths"

Your comments are not only unnecessary, but they are EXACTLY the kind of fuel that this asshole needs to continue his crusade. Are you effin stupid? Death threats and wishing he was "killed at Virginia Tech" is not only sick and wrong, but is making us all look like we're as disturbed as you are.

1- You are not a 'school shooting expert'
2- Weise's movie, Target Practice, was not based off Vice City.
3- Please stop moving towards these school shootings to make a career for yourself.
4- When your son does a school shooting, as soon as we're done mourning, we'll laigh at the irony.

NBC got a tape from the shooter. And I have an uneasy feeling he's going to make some kind of game reference. The reference that comes to mind? Since the shooting was all about killing people with too many privleges ('brats'), I'm expecting to see that quote from Dead Rising that was also from a poem. "And yet he complained that his belly still wasn't full".

Everything to say about Jack Thompson has been said. Many times over. The man has ruined his own credibility and his own career in his star-struck moment after the Grand Theft Auto controversy. Every day he just proves to more and more people that he's an idiot and is guilty of each of the following: ignorance, bigotry, arrogance, immaturity, a dire lack of masculinity, a dire lack of common sense, an impeccable sense of self-righteousness, and overall being a pretentious douchebag.

But we know this. And we've all dismissed his credibility. So why does he continue and persist to badger GP and Kotaku in vain attempts to be dragged back into the spotlight on the curtails of a massacre? Because he realizes his life is, in short, over and he is left with only two choices: continue to attack an innocent population of gamers or commit suicide.

His choice is obvious, and it was obviously the wrong path to take for one so obsessed in his self-image and dignity.

Hell NBC and the FBI will not release the video footage that he sent, but have only released something like 6 pictures, snippets of his"fanifesto", and something like a 30 second snippet of the video footage that was sent to NBC that was found this morning.

I was saying that given what this kid did before he did this...He had some serious. REALLY SERIOUS PROBLEMS.

Not sure if this was mentioned, but Chris Matthews interviewed one of the shooter's roommates and tried to bring up video games (specifically Counter-Strike). The roommate quickly said Cho didn't play any video games.

I saw that latest YouTube video of the interview with David Gregory, which from the looks of things was done before they released Cho Seung-Hui's name. Even after he was cleverly dismissed by Gregory, I was infuriated that he couldn't resist getting off that parting shot. I could almost see him smiling as he said it when he mentioned that he had debated there only a few months ago. At that point I just wanted to put my fist through the screen!

HOW DARE HE?!?!?!?! How DARE he exploit this tragedy in this way!!! Any and all VT students and faculty who saw this should loudly condemn this man and bar him from appearing on their campus ever again!

At least it's good to see that even the people in the MSM, who never used to question him before, are starting to get tired of him. They're starting to realize on some level that violent video games cannot possibly or easily explain what happened there, and by soley relying on that argument, Jack is being seen as someone with very little credibility.

Still, his disbarment can't come fast enough. Here's hoping. (And I'd still like to see his ownage by Brian Williams).

He wasn't introduced as a Video Game Crusader, he was introduced as a 'School Shootings Specialist', you know, from hearing Jack talk, it sounded more to me like he phoned in saying he was a specialist in School Shootings just to get the airtime, and then went anti-video game once he had it.

Maybe I've just seen so much of Jacks' exploits that I wouldn't put it past him, but I genuinely don't think he gave a hint of, or that Fox were expecting the 'Video Games' angle when they let him on air. We all know that Jack Thompson exists, that's why he loves us hating him, because it's attention, but we need to be aware that the one thing that makes Jack Thompson who he is, is his inferiority complex. Most people don't know and don't care who he is, it's his greatest friend and his biggest enemy.

If that were in the bible that would be a great angle to throw at em'. but it's from fiction and also he would just say he is speaking the truth. remember, to him he probably is speaking the truth. he has lied so much that maybe its real to him. alot of fanatics are like that. how he is still a lawyer amazes me. but hopefully that will change

Why is it every time Jack mentioned Jeffrey Weise, he HAD to add that he was Native American? It served absolutely no point, but he kept repeating it? I don't know what that means, but I honestly think among the myriad of mental problems Jack struggles with, racism is on of them. Plus, he says that Jeff "trained" on Vice City. Those shootings were don soley in a school on a reservation. Where in Vice City can you go in a school, or rural setting? Little nitpicking things, but he really does insult the memories of those who have died so tragically by not only using their deaths as instruments for his own political purposes, but not bothering to get the facts straight.

I thought there was an old NBC interview with him in the past 6 months, but apparently, it was an ABC interview where he implied in the interview that one would have to be out of their mind to claim that video games turned people into demons.

Yet that's in effect what he's been saying with these Press Releases and interviews after school shootings or his civil suits.

One thing I heard in that video was how Jack described several cases where the killer went to video games to train. To TRAIN. So basically playing video games doesn't make people killers, it just makes them better at it.

I didnt and I wont. I'll read about it but wont watch it. It's what he wanted after all, why he sent the videos. Even if he is in the afterlife, as silly as it may sounds, I won't give him the satisfaction.

I'm not surprised by Jack anymore. It's a sin to hate someone, right? Even in a digital landscape now, right? Damn... guess I'm a sinner. Big surprise there, but at least I know Jack will accompany me in Hell. Oh God! That really would be Hell!!

Well isn't this beautiful I'm gonna go play some Trauma Center to learn how to operate on people... Oh wait maybe I should go play some Phoenix Wright first so I can defend myself during the eventual malpractice lawsuit! I'm sorry but this guy has gotta go. The sad part is no one called bullshit on it until it's too late. Yeah if Jack Thompson is an expert on school shootings then I'm an expert on Counter Terrorism, why hasn't Fox News asked me to come in for an interview yet? I'm all he's doing is using this tragedy as a springboard to further his own agenda, selfish bastard that he is. I have to ask though is anyone really surprised? I mean we've all seen what kinda guy he really is he offers money to charity then says it was meant to be satire. He mocks us as we're grieving over the suicide of a fellow gamer. He's an inhuman monster, not an expert! I personally think we should write to all the major news stations and show them all the data we have on their so called expert. We could destroy him and his reputation just with the stuff he's written here on GP, let alone elsewhere. I need to go take out this anger on something, any suggestions?

I'll have to watch it later (I'm at work right now). Couldn't see the first one as it told me I didn't have the latest Flash player plugin and I can't download it. The other was that old CNBC interview where he had that ridiculous pink suit and caterpillar moustache (when he was "incognito"). So was that first interview the one he just appeared on?

It's nice to see that he's being questioned by major news outlets and contradicted by those directly involved, whereas circa Paducah and Columbine he got a free pass. Between this and his pending misconduct hearings, it looks like he's clearly on his way out and he's being taken less and less seriously.

I attribute this in part to a wising-up in the news media. Notice how they showed restraint this time around, waiting for the facts to come out and tending to hold Hui more or less responsible for his own actions. I also take some small comfort that while this may have been the worst mass shooting in U.S. history, there is little to no connection to video games that the MSM can pin it on, blowing JT's arguments clear out of the water despite his vain assertions. And finally, the more he insists games are to blame on this, the more the country sees him for the idiot he really is.

He's clearly digging his own grave now. There's no longer any doubt. And I have the feeling that if hr were to approach any of the victims' families, they'd tell him at best to go take a hike, at worst something far less polite.

On a side note, it'd be interesting in the videotape if Hui had any personal words for JT. I wonder how he'd feel about that?

I just watched the msnbc interview on YouTube. Of course Jack Thompson spent the whole interview spouting half-truth and lies. Being a Montreal resident I find it quite annoying when he keeps referring to the Dawson College shooting and claiming that Kimveer Gill trained on Super Columbine Massacre always omitting the "RPG". We had two other school shootings in Montreal, the other shooters were older, they didnt play videogames. Kimver Gill was the only one that did and he was the one that kill the fewest. He took two lives, that of a young woman and his own.

Of course, again there is the reference to "Half-Life Counterstrike" but he goes further this time saying the killer dressed up like his hero in a commando garb. Well there's no commando garb in Half-Life and there's no "hero" in Counter-Strike, it's a mutiplayer team-based game of Counter-Terrorists vs Terrorists. I'm a fan of couter-strike, I don't play often but when I do it's exciting, it doesnt "train" me to get my heart rate down.

Like he says "the killer was calm like he was playing a videogame". Well when I'm playing a videogame, if I have a flat calm face the game is boring and I wont play it for long. How can you rehearse locking doors with a chain anyway? Is there any videogames where that was a part of it? He makes it sound like videogames are totally interactive, like you can do anything in them.

What annoys me most is that again he is presented as a school shooting expert when anyone who knows the bare minimum about these events know that he says completelty the opposite of law enforcement organizations like the FBI. It's pure sensionalism. Not news reporting. The worst part is definetely "Ironically I was on this campus years ago, talking about the dangers of these games and now it's come to that school". Like he was saying "I told you so".

[...] Very sad to see the anti-game crusaders chasing down every school massacre with their complete BS. In the face of the horrible, horrible tragedy at Virginia Tech, Jack gets on Fox News before ANYTHING is known about the killer, proclaiming games to be at fault. Sadder still is that Fox keeps turning to such “experts”. [...]

Well he was on NBC this afternoon during Hardball with Chris Matthews. He pretty much repeated word for word what he said during the FOX interview. The only difference I saw was that Chris Matthews didn't fall for it. The shooters suitemates said they never saw him play a video game, yet Thompson argued and stated over and over that he played Counter Strike, so much so that the host finally said "Were you there, did you know the kid? Then how do you know more then his suite mates?"

I don't know why they bothered to have him on, but at least they didn't let him shove his bullshit un-checked down their viewers throats.

thomson really jumped the gun on this one. im watching cnn now and they are saying 2 or so years ago the shooter was declared a "threat to society"
in court but refused mental health treatment. they are also saying he emailed some sort of threat or plan of this thing to someone at nbc. like ive been saying, its a mental health issue on this one folks. not guns, not videogames. people fall through the cracks and this time the mental health system in this country is really sticking out like a sore thumb.

I haven't read all of the comments here, so somebody else might have pointed this out, but...

Listen to it again, and pay close attention to the questions that the interviewer asks. He continually tries to get JT to discuss the bigger picture, to talk about more than just games. He continually fails, because JT avoids the questions and instead continues to push his single-minded crusade.

This means JT is even less credible than Fox News, and that's saying something :)

Well if playing video games makes you kill 33 people then the army should consider changing their training tactics. Screw the oh-so-many-months of hard training, sit them in a chair playing Halo, Gears of Wars and GTA Vice City.

Then we would have the best army in the world, IF the things about playing violent games is true. if not then we would have the laziest army in the world, since they would all be playing WOW

I didn't even bother to watch it but I find it amusing anyways. For someone who constantly fails at video game legislation and gets contempt of court charges, he sure likes to pretend he is a credible source.

I love you Jack! I have a picture of your face cut out into a heart on my wall!

Ah yes, Doom. The Columbine Killer's training game. Shooting at the wall to hit a demon a few stories above you sure taught these kids how to handle a weapon. This is why Doom is affectionately referred to as the "broad-side-of-the-barn simulator" by my friend and I, who are both avid lovers of the old Doom games. I wonder if Dylan and Klebod found that damned blue keycard to get into the buildings.

It seems like no matter what the discussion is (school shootings, street shootings, fights, bed-wetting, jaywalking) JT has to turn it into a crusade against video games. This man is no expert, no specialist. He just has a lot of charisma and he uses that to his advantage. Just listening to him speak you can tell he has no idea what the living hell he is talking about. Super Columbine Massacre, wait...he forgot a word...RPG. RPG. I should not have to explain this. Yes, maybe the game was in bad taste, however, realistic? Definitely not. Counter-Strike Half-Life...what the hell is that? Which one? Cause if it's Counter-Strike then there's definitely no hero. This man is just a self-centered and insensitive jackass, who knows nothing of what he speaks about.

You're fired Mr. Thompson, clear out your cubicle and get the hell out.

It was at the end of an interview he did with Rolling Stone last summer. His son was about to go to camp and he asked him if it was ok that he not tell the other kids who his father was, obviously ashamed and embarassed. The interview ended with JT saying while he feels sorry his son has to endure that, he doesn't regret anything he's done.

A VERY interesting story. But it's this line that made me sit up and take notice:

"In another, Cho concocted a tale of students who fantasize about stalking and killing a teacher who sexually molested them."

Maybe it is just another violent story he wrote. But... well, we know nothing about his life before he came to the US. And we do know, from this story, that he had to spend some time in a mental facility. We also know that abuse victims suffer from bouts of suicidal thoughts, rage, and even self-imposed isolation.

Am I grasping at straws being a couch potato psychologist? Maybe. But things are sounding rather... interesting.

And, frankly, after the Cody Posey case, it wouldn't surprise me if certain individuals tried to downplay or have such events wiped from the record just so they could push their personal, religious, and/or political agendas.

Yeah, I know I keep bringing up the Cody Posey case. But, frankly, I find it one of the sickest acts done so far. That of trying to downplay the abuse this kid suffered and nearly suffered just to push an agenda.

"Cho indicated in his letter that the end was near and that there was a deed to be done, the official said. He also expressed disappointment in his own religion, and made several references to Christianity, the official said."

Well, we see why John Bruce is so hyped up to push video games now. Last thing he wants is his religion blamed. (We don't know the exact details of the letter, so we don't know how the kid referenced Christianity so it may just be something he, himself, could understand.) Honestly, John Bruce is trying very hard this time to put all the blame on video games. His own REAL motivations should be in question.

You'd think an "expert" on school shootings would remember that the FBI report said the most common violent interest of the various school shooters was their own morbid writings, and even that was only true in about 30% of the cases, I think.
I've said it before, and I'll say it again. This is an insult to everyone who died at Virginia Tech, Columbine, and every other one of these shootings, and an insult to the friends and family.
Scapegoating draws attention from whatever really caused this to happen. It makes it that much harder to try to prevent it from happening again.

The shooter was american. He's been in america since he was 8 years old. He's spent 15 years in the United States. It would be more appropriate to say he was of South Korean origin than to say he was South Korean. Just saying he was South Korean tends to shift the blame or the responsibility away from anything american.

Daniel Lewis: The only thing said i disagree with is the final quote on Men's experiences are seen to be universal but women are gendered,though doesn't anita say that games with male protagonists are male power fantasies,so in turn both are gendered03/31/2015 - 1:08pm

Daniel Lewis: i found the video to be much better than any of the TvW series and it's about time the positive women are put in the spotlight03/31/2015 - 1:06pm

Daniel Lewis: So feministfrequency released a positive female character video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXmj2yJNUmQ03/31/2015 - 1:05pm

Daniel Lewis: I think the guy who made the direct leak said it was an april fools joke when a real one was announced03/31/2015 - 12:43pm

MaskedPixelante: No way Nintendo would let information like that get out. Remember, they shut down a memoir about the localization of Earthbound by enforcing a 20 year old NDA on the author.03/31/2015 - 12:42pm

james_fudge: Conster: the larger issue is that Ind. does not protect LGBTQ+ people under state law03/31/2015 - 12:11pm

PHX Corp: @MP I think it is confirmed(not an April Fools joke) http://mynintendonews.com/2015/03/31/nintendo-direct-confirmed-for-wednesday-april-1st/03/31/2015 - 12:00pm

Conster: Apparently Pence intends to amend SB101 so denying service isn't allowed - without explicitly protecting LGBT+ and while still allowing the many other things you can get away with now if it's motivated by your religious beliefs.03/31/2015 - 11:53am

MaskedPixelante: http://mynintendonews.com/2015/03/30/rumour-nintendo-direct-on-april-1st/ A supposed full leak of tomorrow's Nintendo Direct, so you can all laugh and laugh about how wrong it is.03/31/2015 - 11:35am

PHX Corp: http://kotaku.com/why-a-tekken-7-character-is-being-called-a-phoney-1694724959 Why a Tekken 7 Character Is Being Called a Phoney03/31/2015 - 10:08am

Michael Chandra: Argh. Anyway, I'm glad that move was made. Wonder if it counts, can he just declare it like that? 03/31/2015 - 9:27am

Zen: Conster - Good, it's a BS law that exists to just allow hate basically. Glad people are standing up to it. Sadly it should never have passed to begin with though.03/31/2015 - 8:39am

Zen: Nintendo Direct tomorrow it seems. Funny it will be on April 1st lol. http://www.ign.com/articles/2015/03/31/nintendo-direct-announced-for-tomorrow03/31/2015 - 8:38am

MaskedPixelante: http://www.destructoid.com/chris-charla-would-love-to-see-no-man-s-sky-on-xbox-one-289761.phtml Apparently Microsoft's famous "parity clause" doesn't apply if they thing your game will make them tons of money.03/31/2015 - 8:00am

Conster: Basically, he's claiming there's a state statute that allows him to invoke section 2 of SB101 and be exempt from it.03/31/2015 - 5:48am

Conster: "..military service veteran status, and any breach of this policy shall continue to be considered a material breach of the relationship with the City."03/31/2015 - 5:09am